Abbey Tart
| Abbey Tart | |
|---|---|
 Landmark Abbey Tart, 1723 |
|
| Lies in the diocese | Langres |
| Coordinates: | 47 ° 11 '3 " N , 5 ° 14' 36" E |
| founding year | 1132 |
| Year of dissolution / annulment |
18th century |
| Congregation | Cistercian women |
The Tart Abbey , also Le Tart , was the first Cistercian nunnery . The abbey , now only in ruins , was located in what is now the French community of Tart-l'Abbaye in Burgundy on the banks of the Ouche River , only a few kilometers from the Cistercian mother monastery of Cîteaux .
history
The foundation and the first century
The founding deed of Tart Abbey dates back to 1132, but the deed shows that donations were made as early as 1125. Founders were Arnoul Cornu, lord of Tart-le-Haut and his wife Emeline; the original donation included the lands of Tart, Tithe at Rouvres and Tart-la-Ville and a farm in Marmot. Preparations for the founding of the monastery had already begun a few years earlier, around 1120: not only Arnoul Cornu was involved, but also his liege, the bishop of Langres , Josserand de Brancion, and the cathedral chapter of Langres, the family of Duke Hugo II. of Burgundy and Stephan Harding , abbot of Cîteaux at the time.
The first abbess of the monastery was Elizabeth von Vergy, widow of Humbert von Mailly, Lord von Fauverney and daughter of Savary von Donzy, Count of Chalon-sur-Saȏne. Before that she was a novice of the Benedictine monastery Jully in Jully-les-Nonnains, from where the new abbey was also settled.
1147 put Pope Eugene III. the abbey by a bull under papal protection - this was confirmed again and again by his successors.
The abbey received numerous donations and land donations from the aristocrats of the area, so that the nuns were financially secure. Their lands also included some vineyards: Vignoble de Bourgogne , as well as vineyards in Beaune , Chambolle-Musigny , Morey-Saint-Denis , Chézeaux and Vosne-Romanée . Wine production and sales became an important economic factor of the monastery, but the work to be done in the vineyards and on other lands was considered too difficult for women, which is why the work was taken over by conversers from Cîteaux. Since their labor was also limited and they were therefore only temporarily available to the Tart Monastery, day workers mostly had to be hired for the work at hand.
Close ties to Cîteaux continued to exist in other areas: The abbot of Cîteaux supervised the monastic discipline and appointed the abbess, who in the case of Tart could not be elected by the convent. As a result, Tart was at the head of the Cistercian women's monasteries and many subsidiaries were founded in France and Spain. At the end of the 13th century, the monastery was considered wealthy due to its land holdings; consequently, it was able to survive the Hundred Years War and other crises.
Decline and reform
In the first 100 years of its existence - and under the close ties to Cîteaux - the abbey distinguished the great piety and discipline of the nuns, which had contributed to a special high esteem for Tart. After that, a certain decline set in - due to external influences such as wars and economic crises, as well as a development that affected most women's conventions of the time. It was the practice of many noble families to use monasteries as safe accommodation for their unmarried daughters. The women who became nuns in this way were therefore not always inclined to a religious life, which had a negative effect on monastic life and monastic discipline. In the 16th century the abbey was already in decline - even interventions by bishops and popes were unable to change anything in the secular life of the nuns.
It was not until 1617 that reform impulses came to Tart with the new abbess Jeanne-Françoise von Courcelles de Pourlan . Contrary to the resistance of her convent, she found a supporter of her reform efforts in Sébastien Zamet , the bishop of Langres. However, as external and internal resistance to reform persisted, it was finally decided that reform in the current state of Tart was not possible, but that the only way would be to move the nuns to Dijon . It was hoped that the urban environment in Dijon would be able to better restore monastic discipline. Five reform-minded nuns and two novices then moved to Dijon on May 24, 1623.
Dijon
The first years in Dijon were not comfortable for the convention: there were long delays in finding suitable premises and financial resources dwindled after the land and buildings in Tart were destroyed in the course of the Thirty Years' War .
After a reform opponent - Pierre Nivelle - had been elected as the new abbot in Cîteaux, the abbess Jeanne de Pourlan took the initiative and placed her convent under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Langres. In addition, she changed the old system so that the abbot of Cîteaux no longer installed the new abbess, but that she could be elected by the nunnery for a period of three years. From 1630 to 1635 the reformer Agnès Arnauld was elected Abbess of Tart.
Repeal
In the course of the French Revolution , the abbey in Dijon was dissolved.
The monastery buildings now house a museum for life in Burgundy, the Musée de Perrin de Puycousin . The former church now houses the Dijon Museum of Sacred Art, the Musée d'art sacré de Dijon .
literature
- Bazin, Jean-François: Chambertin, Le Grand Bernard des Vins de France . Editions Jacques Legrand, 1991
- Blondel, Madeleine: Un monastère cistercien à Dijon: Les Dames de Tart . Dijon 1998
- Bouton, J., Chauvin, B., Grosjean, E., nd: L'Abbaye de Tart et ses Filiales au Moyen-Age , in: Mélanges à la mémoire du Père Anselme Dimier. Part II (Histoire cistercienne), Volume 3, pp. 19-61
- Chauvin, B .: L'Église, la vigne et le vin dans le massif jurassien . Cercle Girardot, 1999
- Chauvin, B., Blondel, M .: De Tart à Dijon . Éditions Gaud, Monsenay 2004
- Didier, Anselme: Histoire cistercienne , vol 3: Abbayes, Moines , Article 146, t. II. Pupillin, 1984
- Francken, J .: Agnès Arnault . Nijmegen 1932
- Goussard, J .: Nouveau guide pittoresque du voyageur à Dijon . Dijon 1961
- Gruère, H .: Histoire des Dames de Tart . Dactyl, Dijon 1939
- Marilier, Jean: Histoire de l'Église en Bourgogne . Éditions du Bien Public 1991, ISBN 2-905441-36-4
